Government Executive - Authors - Maureen Sirhal

Small firm successfully navigates homeland security maze

Maureen Sirhal — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0500

The Austin, Texas-based maker of fraud-detection software has obtained something that has eluded many small businesses over the last two years -- a piece of the federal government's $29 billion Homeland Security budget.

But how did a company that employs fewer than 39 workers successfully navigate the government procurement maze? "With a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work," explained Infoglide CEO and President Mike Schultz.

Backed by insurance industry investments, Infoglide originally launched in 1996 to develop software that could search for similarities or patterns in data.

In the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Infoglide connected with the Transportation Department and the agency that became the Transportation Security Administration and eventually garnered a lucrative contract.

"With a background in fraud detection and alias identification, you could guess that after the events of 9/11 our software had high applicability in the government," Schultz said.

Infoglide's business development officials placed calls to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, pitching their ready-made software as a potential security aid. Those calls helped paved Infoglide's foray into the government market. Mineta referred the firm's officials to TSA technology procurement officers.

Having formed in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the agency was "eager to listen to companies who made sense," Schultz said. The firm competed against more than 1,000 companies for a spot as a subcontractor on a TSA initiative before the agency chose the leading contractor, Lockheed Martin.

"That whole process enabled small companies ... to send its best and brightest," Schultz said. Firms employing as few as 10 workers and as many as 10,000 competed in the process, he said.

Although prohibited from disclosing the nature of its TSA contract, Schultz said he believes the firm was selected "because we could demonstrate in a live circumstance a system that could solve the problem."

Infoglide's success story may assuage some of the criticism by small-business owners, who have said security-related federal spending is chiefly awarded to large companies. The House Small Business Subcommittee convened hearings in October to consider whether the bulk of homeland security contracts favored large firms.

Infoglide's exposure in TSA has boosted the company's profile among other federal departments. Many project leaders within Homeland Security are "analyzing the applicability of our software," Schultz noted. The company anticipates opening a branch office in Virginia.

Kevin Boshears, who heads the small-business utilization office at the Homeland Security Department, told the House committee that the department is awarding about 23 percent of its contracts to small firms.

Last week, Homeland Security announced the formation of a small business grant program to spur development of technologies that could be used in a host of security applications.

High-tech industry groups, such as AeA, also are striving to connect technology entrepreneurs with the technologies produced federal agencies in need of innovative ideas.

Schultz acknowledged that complex regulations and the sheer size of the federal government made the idea of bidding on a contract more of a headache than it was potentially worth. But he credited reforms undertaken by former White House e-government chief Mark Forman to better enable smaller entrepreneurs to compete for business opportunities.

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Techies in Texas eye research backing from Washington

Maureen Sirhal — Mon, 20 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0400

AUSTIN, Texas--Aiming to reinvigorate the local technology economy here, technology industry experts and academics are looking to the federal government for assistance to boost basic research and commercialization of advanced applications.

Speaking on Friday before a regional forum organized by the U.S. branch of the Institute Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), panels of University of Texas researchers and local tech leaders argued that at a time when companies have fewer resources, federal agencies are well positioned to boost support of basic science and tech research, and to increase efforts to transfer that research into new technology products and applications.

With more tech manufacturing jobs being moved abroad and leaving U.S. engineers and workers unemployed, leaders in Austin aim to help cultivate new technologies to boost the economy. Consequently, private- and public-sector organizations are focused on ways to not only increase science and technology research but also to create more outlets for converting that high-end research into tangible products, much the way commercialization of the Internet created new industries such as online commerce.

Panelists at the conference lauded moves by policymakers to boost research and development funding, including recent efforts by Congress to pass legislation that would inject billions of dollars into nanotechnology research over the next several years. But similar funding and leadership is necessary in other industry sectors, they said.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offers one good R&D model that the government can replicate, said Juan Sanchez, vice president for research at the University of Texas at Austin. DARPA is "highly focused" and invests in projects that will produce technologies aimed at solving specific problems identified by the Defense Department, he said.

UT professor Theodore Rappaport, who heads the university's research group on wireless networking and communications, argued that the nation is on the cusp of major benefits from wireless technologies and applications. But there needs to be more leadership from federal government to fund research and attract competent professionals to the field in order to develop breakthrough technologies and applications.

Research funded by DARPA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the 1960s, for example, helped lay the foundation for developing the Internet. "My concern is that there is no real leadership from the government" now like there was then, he said.

Venture capitalists and states are not making those kinds of commitments, Rappaport said. He said agencies like DARPA and the FCC will have to create a focus in telecommunications to jumpstart the economy through wireless, high-speed Internet service, for example.

Even as lawmakers seek to redouble support of R&D funding through institutions like NSF, there is ongoing debate over the role government should play in research. Some policymakers in Washington consider funding for science research akin to "corporate welfare," Sanchez said.

Still, he argued that government support of research and development helps fund long-term projects that may yield future breakthroughs and ultimately the next economic boom.

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Administration favors keeping exemptions to e-signature requirements

Maureen Sirhal — Thu, 03 Jul 2003 00:00:00 -0400

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration urged Congress in a report issued Monday to retain current exemptions from the Electronic Signatures In Global E-Commerce (ESIGN) Act, which allows transactions such as mortgages to be completed entirely electronically.

The 2000 law exempted documents in nine categories: court records; wills and testaments; domestic and family law records; contracts governed by state commercial law; cancellation notices for utility services; cancellation notices for health or life insurance benefits; property foreclosures, evictions and default notices; product-recall notices; and shipping papers for hazardous materials and dangerous goods.

Those exemptions were included to allow lawmakers, as well as industry and consumer groups, to study the impact of e-signatures in those areas. Congress called on NTIA to conduct a three-year evaluation of the law to determine whether those areas should continue to be excused.

After collecting comments and studying the issue for nearly a year, the agency said it is too early to eliminate the nine exemptions to ESIGN. NTIA suggested that while the use of e-signatures has been growing, today's technology is not adequate enough to guard the confidentiality of the most sensitive documents, so Congress should not eliminate the exemptions.

The agency noted that in several of the categories, states are the primary governing entities and have enacted exemptions to their own e-signature laws for documents such as wills, court testimonies and family law papers. The elimination of some of the ESIGN exemptions could lead to inadvertent disclosures of information that is otherwise considered highly sensitive and confidential in some states, the report noted.

"After three years," the report said, "there has been remarkable progress in some of the areas covered by the exceptions in terms of the use of electronic signatures and records. ... Due to the high confidentiality and privacy interests inherent in transactions involving other exceptions (such as wills, family law, foreclosure and defaults, utility cancellations), there are few, if any, solutions other than ESIGN that institutions and the marketplace can provide at this time."

Moreover, NTIA found, "policies and practices for consumer protection in each area are still being established and incorporated into e-commerce and market systems."

The agency's recommendations incorporate advice that it received from various experts and industry groups that supported retaining the nine exemptions. They include trade associations for banks, mortgage lenders, financial services firms and lawyers.

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Officials tout benefits of IT accessibility rules

Maureen Sirhal — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Officials are marking the two-year anniversary of rules requiring the federal government to adopt technologies that are accessible to the disabled by noting progress toward that goal. But they also warn that without proper monitoring and ongoing improvements, full accessibility to government technology services may lag for years to come.

The National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent agency tasked with making recommendations on disability polices to White House, noted in an excerpt of a forthcoming report to Congress that federal agencies generally are increasing their awareness and adoption of information technology products and services that are accessible to disabled Americans. Those efforts are required by rules promulgated under statutory language known as Section 508.

"I think we're still making gains," said Terry Weaver, director of the Center for Information Technology Accommodations at the General Services Administration (GSA). "We are not still in the position we were two years ago when people said '5-0-what?'"

The mandate, named after its place in the Rehabilitation Act, took effect in June 2001 and requires all federal agencies to make their electronic communications and technology systems accessible to all people with disabilities.

The Justice Department is tasked with monitoring implementation of the rule, and in its capacity as a federal supplier, GSA has been assisting agencies in purchasing products that comply with Section 508 standards. Among other things, the rules require that government Web sites include coding that enables blind people to access the services offered on the sites.

"The first year, right around the date it started, you had Webmasters pulling their hair out," Weaver said. Over the last two years, "we built a baseline of knowledge up ... but there's a lot more to go because this is not a simple mandate," she added.

GSA helps train federal employees across the country about acquiring disability-friendly tech systems and educate e-government managers on integrating accessibility into their IT strategies.

One major plus is that over the last year, high-tech firms have heeded the accessibility message. "They want to sell what we want to buy," Weaver said.

Microsoft, for example, last week unveiled new features to its software systems. And the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) has facilitated an industry-led effort to identify new software, hardware and other products that meet Section 508 standards. The demand from government has led to the proliferation of choices for disabled consumers as well.

"We've been able to meet more consumer needs just because we've had more input" from government customers, said Laura Ruby, program manager for regulatory and industry affairs at Microsoft's accessible-technology group.

But Martin Gould, a senior research specialist with NCD, cautioned that roadblocks to Section 508 compliance remain. Not all industry developers consider accessibility when building gadgets, he said. He added that the accessibility mandates do not apply to some small IT purchases by agencies and that Congress must make strides to comply with the rules.

Lawmakers likely will review Section 508 when the Rehabilitation Act faces reauthorization later this year.

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Plan to reduce patent office backlog faces political hurdles

Maureen Sirhal — Fri, 20 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0400

PTO has proposed an overhaul aimed at addressing that concern. The plan calls for changing the review process for patent applications by outsourcing key functions and seeking closer cooperation with foreign counterparts. Officials tout the reform effort as an economic necessity, but aspects of it have caused consternation among groups representing the interests of federal workers and among some industry organizations.

Deputy PTO Director Jon Dudas said budgetary constraints and the increase in applications spurred by the electronic commerce market have caused "a tremendous backlog of patent applications." Currently, more than 450,000 applications need to be reviewed, and patent pendency, the time from application to issuance of a patent, is about 27 months.

"Crisis is a strong word," Michael Kirk, executive director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, told a congressional committee, "but we believe that it aptly describes the situation. ... The reliability of patents and trademark registrations is increasingly being called into question."

The backlog could put new products and services at risk, experts said. Without the certainty of a patent or a trademark behind those products, investors are less likely to provide venture capital or other forms of funding for them because they are not guaranteed exclusive rights.

To combat those problems, PTO Director James Rogan, a former Republican House member from California, last year unveiled the 21st-Century Strategic Plan, which aims to ameliorate market uncertainty by improving the quality of patents and trademarks and reducing patent pendency. The plan outlines a series of procedural changes designed to eliminate redundancies in the review process and to bolster training for employees.

Dudas said the mounting application backlog is tied to "redundant" searches for "prior art," or existing inventions that would be grounds for dismissing applications. To remedy that problem, the strategic plan calls for outsourcing some duties of government patent examiners.

The proposal also seeks closer cooperation with patent offices in other countries and with private companies to enable patent examiners to use previously conducted searches for prior art. For companies that apply globally for patents, the plan would build on prior-art searches already conducted in places such as Europe or Japan. Inventors also could pay reduced fees for private searches and then submit that information to PTO.

"If it's a good search, [PTO] can use it. ... [I]f they feel its not a good search, they can seek additional time to do an additional search," Dudas said. "It's akin to a judge having clerks doing legal research."

But that proposal has faced a heap of criticism. "We think we can do a better job searching," said Ronald Stern, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, the labor organization for government-employed patent examiners. "We can give the patent community a better job at a cheaper price than any alternative."

He argued that separating prior-art searches from examinations would diminish the quality, because the examiners would not have as much knowledge to properly assess applications if they rely on a third-party searches.

PTO officials said the strategic plan does call for more examiners. However, Congress also has mandated that the agency cannot "hire its way" out of its problems, Dudas said, but instead must make its processes more efficient.

To that end, outsourcing is only one aspect of the plan. PTO also is considering more frequent testing and training programs to sharpen the skills of patent and trademark examiners. And the agency wants to establish protocols "to ensure that applications receive more reviews by more examiners," Dudas said.

The plan also calls for changes in the way the agency reviews approved patents. The goal is to find a more efficient and inexpensive way to resolve disputes over newly issued patents.

Various industry groups, including the Intellectual Property Law Association and the International Trademark Association, favor the proposal despite planned hikes in fees for trademark and patent applications. A measure pending in Congress would authorize fee increases of roughly 15 percent.

But that bill also seeks to require that all fees generated from such applications be reserved for PTO use. That provision is aimed at eliminating the practice in recent years of diverting money raised from patent and trademark fees to unrelated federal programs. Many intellectual property interests have voiced support for the bill as long as any higher fees could not be used to subsidize other governmental operations.

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Official outlines intergovernmental efforts to bolster security

Maureen Sirhal — Thu, 19 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Homeland security officials are working with state and local governments to implement initiatives aimed at boosting the sharing of emergency-response resources and improving the ability of different agencies' equipment to communicate with each other, a Homeland Security Department official said on Thursday.

Michael Brown, undersecretary for the department's emergency preparedness and response directorate, told the House Homeland Security Committee that his agency is moving forward with programs that are aimed at boosting domestic preparedness in case of natural disasters or terrorist attacks similar to those of Sept. 11, 2001.

The directorate plans to distribute more than $145 million this year in conjunction with the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Service, Brown said in a prepared statement.

State and local governments "will compete for demonstration projects that will explore uses of equipment and technologies to increase interoperability among the fire, law enforcement and emergency-medical-services communities," he said. Those projects will serve as models for technical solutions in public safety that can be deployed throughout the country, he added.

Emergency-response and public-safety groups have been grappling with the poor interoperability of their communications and other equipment that are seen as vital to coordinating response efforts in situations like those on Sept. 11.

On another front, Brown's directorate held a nationwide exercise and training program to simulate conditions of a terrorist attack. "This exercise was a success in part because it revealed several areas for improvement the directorate is now addressing" Brown said. It "also validated that our existing processes and procedures will allow [the directorate] to respond to a disaster, including a terrorist attack with a weapon of mass destruction."

The agency spent $165 million in April to fund emergency-management performance grants, which are targeted toward helping state and local "first responders" to emergencies plan similar training exercises. The agency also will award nearly $74 million to help states upgrade their emergency operations centers with new technologies and physical improvements.

The directorate, furthermore, is developing new inter-local and intrastate agreements to share equipment and personnel, Brown said. Those mutual-aid requests will be integrated into a national system for "requesting, receiving and managing emergency-response resources," which he said would enhance the nation's ability to recover in an emergency.

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Bush administration to unveil cybersecurity initiative

Maureen Sirhal — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Robert Liscouski, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Homeland Security Department, will host a roundtable to unveil the initiative, said David Wray, a department spokesman. Word of the event touched off talk that the White House has chosen a cybersecurity director who will be placed within Homeland Security, but Wray cautioned that the event would not be a "personnel announcement."

Sources close to the issue suggested that department officials are likely to announce the structure of the office, however. These people said Homeland Security will create a cybersecurity office within the information analysis and infrastructure protection directorate, and that the head of that office will report to either Liscouski or Frank Libutti, the directorate undersecretary.

The White House and Homeland Security have yet to select the person to fill the job, sources said. "They are still vetting the names of who they want to be cybersecurity czar," according to one industry source.

The move is intended to allay concerns expressed by the high-tech industry and critics on Capitol Hill that the Bush administration is not prioritizing the issue of cyber security. Industry experts said that whomever assumes leadership of the office must have the appropriate authority to execute effectively recommendations outlined in the national cybersecurity strategy, which the White House released in September.

Right now, "the Internet is being attacked," one source said, adding that "the people responsible for protecting the Internet have to be people recognized in the administration and the industry as credible and effective."

William Harrod, director of investigative response for TruSecure, an intelligence and security provider, said any role the federal government has in trying to bolster cyber security will require organizations to do it voluntarily, so a cybersecurity director has to have enough cachet within the administration to reach out to senior executives in the largest corporations and persuade them to follow the cybersecurity recommendations.

"It is really is going to require somebody at almost a Cabinet-level position to administer a brokering between the federal government and these organizations," he said.

He argued that the director needs both authority and a specific budget, noting that cybersecurity advisers in the Bush administration historically have lacked both.

Still, other industry sources said the anticipated announcement is a positive development.

"The fact that they've agreed to build an organization around implementing the national strategy, that it's to coordinate the cyber activities of the various offices within the department and to serve as the central point of contact for industry, that's what we've been asking for," the source said. "We're glad they're doing this."

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Budget chief sees improvement on technology front

Maureen Sirhal — Tue, 27 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Daniels told National Journal Group reporters in an interview last week that he is proud of how his office has managed technology and e-government programs.

In the past, Daniels, said, "government ... has done a horrible job of acquiring and using information technology. We're spending $58 billion this year, and a lot of it's not only misspent, it's counterproductively spent. That is to say, agencies are building systems that won't work even with the systems in their own agencies, let alone across the government."

To remedy that problem, OMB has relied on a federal law known as the Clinger-Cohen Act to ensure that the government is not misspending taxpayer dollars. He called that statute "an unusual tool" that allows the White House and executive branch "to put our big, hairy foot down in the path of any IT investment that doesn't meet certain tests."

"It hadn't been used until we got here," Daniels added. "But we've used it a lot. I hope my successors will use it continually to reshape IT investment so we get a more interoperable and effective system across the government."

At the behest of consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader and the Consumer Project on Technology, Daniels and other OMB officials have been contemplating a move that could force federal agencies to purchase common software, such as word processors and graphics-presentation programs, to adhere to open standards.

The move, according to the project's executive director, James Love, would boost competition for "open source" software whose code is open to inspection and alteration by users and lower prices for the government.

"I am very interested in the subject, but I don't pretend to know enough to know exactly what the right answers are on the open-source subject," Daniels said. He added, however that "government deserves a lot better deal than it's getting, all say this, from some of its major vendors."

Right now, OMB is discussing ways to get " better volume discounts and pricing" from software vendors. "Part of that might be to encourage wider competition, which I think takes you in the direction-maybe-of open source," he said.

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Lawmakers wary of new terrorist threat center

Maureen Sirhal — Fri, 23 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Congress required the Homeland Security Department to implement a system for analyzing information on terrorist threats, but a separate entity known as the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) is housed within the CIA and will serve as a central repository for all government intelligence information. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said the Bush administration unwisely placed that center there.

"The administration has ... created a weak intelligence-analysis unit inside the department and a brand new threat-integration center under the command of the director of central intelligence," Lieberman told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, also known as the 9-11 Commission. "I fear it will not do what is necessary to prevent further terrorism from occurring."

Congress passed legislation last fall creating the 9-11 Commission and charged it with providing a full accounting of the Sept. 11 attacks by next year and with recommending ways to avoid similar tragedies. The commission hosted a two-day meeting on Thursday and Friday to consider Congress' oversight role and the response of federal agencies to the attacks.

Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that a forthcoming report from a joint congressional inquiry into Sept. 11 examines how a lack of resources in the intelligence community contributed to their failure to identify or distribute information that might have helped prevent the attacks. The lawmakers at the hearing pressed the 9-11 Commission to exhaustively explore the issues raised in that report.

Commission member and former Republican Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington asked the lawmakers whether the CIA, FBI and other intelligence units are quickly implementing post-Sept. 11 changes that Congress and other groups have recommended.

Shelby said there has not been enough "wholesale change." Even today, Lieberman added, "our intelligence community remains divided and trapped behind many of the same bureaucratic barriers that spelled disaster in the months leading up to" Sept. 11.

But Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., suggested that intelligence officials have taken steps to reform and plug intelligence gaps. The National Security Agency, for example, has obtained better technology systems, she said. "The FBI ... has good, possibly excellent, technology systems that can do data mining and state-of-the-art intelligence gathering," she added.

Lawmakers urged the commission to be unrelenting in its quest for access to executive-branch records. They also called for quicker de-classification of essential reports, including the findings the joint congressional inquiry, which concluded late last year. Harman said that report should be available to the commission by June.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other lawmakers expressed frustration that the commission until now has been denied access to the report. McCain also called on the Bush administration to be more cooperative in providing security information that will help the commission fulfill its duty.

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Tax experts discuss ways to expand electronic filing

Maureen Sirhal — Tue, 20 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

More citizens are relying on electronic tax-filing systems, and a panel of U.S. tax practitioners and experts on Tuesday signaled that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must address several issues in order to replicate that success with businesses and expand electronic services.

Members of the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee, which is helping the IRS expand Internet-based tax filing and other electronic services, met to preview some of the e-filing recommendations that it plans to make in its annual report to Congress in June.

"We think what you'll see in this report ... is an ever-broadening view of electronic tax administration," committee Chairman Kevin Belden said. He cautioned that the discussion might not reflect the substance of the final report to Congress.

Generally, the committee members agreed that the IRS has made significant progress toward enabling citizens to file their income-tax returns electronically. As of April 25, nearly 51.9 million forms were filed that way, up 13 percent, or 46.9 million, last year, said JoAnn Bass, director of strategic services at the IRS' Electronic Tax Administration. By October, the agency expects to hit its target of 53 million users.

In compiling the report, committee members have been studying various aspects of the tax-filing process and suggested areas where the IRS needs to shift its focus to encourage the establishment of a fully "electronic relationship" with businesses, citizens and tax-preparation consultants.

"Some of the themes that we've been talking about is the need to focus on the value proposition for the external stakeholders," Belden said. The panel formed subcommittees to address those three perspectives.

The panel noted for example, that the report may suggest to Congress that the IRS craft guidance for business taxpayers on what kinds of electronic data will need to be retained in connection with e-tax returns. In many companies, invoices often are stored in five different databases, said Emily Lindsay, vice president of corporate accounting services of Marriott International, so companies need to know what information they need to store and for how long, in case they are audited.

Part of that effort may require the agency to adjust its IT systems to be able to accept electronic evidence along with tax returns, she added.

Additionally, the IRS may need to conduct a focus group to study why nearly 75 million taxpayers still prefer filing by paper, as opposed to the Internet or electronic means.

One reason may be that some citizens and businesses want to avoid additional data entry, panelists noted. Consequently, the group indicated that it may recommend that the IRS treat paper and electronic tax returns equally.

Panelists also suggested that the agency should consider streamlining the various authorization processes that tax practitioners must undergo in order to obtain access to data filed electronically on behalf of clients.

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Agencies could play role in boosting software competition, advocates say

Maureen Sirhal — Mon, 19 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Consumer advocates say the Bush administration is studying whether to require that federal agencies purchase more non-proprietary software in an effort to facilitate federal workers' ability to trade electronic documents and to boost competition in the software industry.

Ralph Nader, founder of the advocacy group Public Citizen, met last week with White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mitch Daniels and other officials to discuss the government's use of its procurement powers in promoting software competition. James Love, who directs the Nader-founded Consumer Project on Technology, also attended the meeting and said the two sides have discussed the issue during the past year.

Public Citizen has argued that a need for computer users to quickly swap electronic documents has given Microsoft a default monopoly in the market for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation-graphic software via its popular Word and PowerPoint products. Nader is concerned that "public information" stored electronically in proprietary software formats like Microsoft's will force consumers to purchase Microsoft or Microsoft-related products.

"The government actually has a responsibility that this information is available to the public freely," said Tony Stanco, associate director of George Washington University's Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute. "Putting things in proprietary format is not really justifiable."

And Love said there is an additional problem: "The big reason that people spend the big bucks for Microsoft is not because of its superior products; it's because they want to easily exchange documents." Consequently, "prices for Microsoft are going up."

According to Love, OMB officials say they have found that federal agencies are paying high fees for many proprietary solutions. "There was a lot of piecemeal procurement, and the prices that agencies were paying were higher than what corporate customers are paying," he explained.

The "U.S. government should insist" that its word-processing and presentation-graphic software vendors rely on non-proprietary standards for document files, Love said. That open standard for file formats would boost competition in the overall software market, he added.

Love said he and Nader suggested that the federal government purchase Corel Corp., a competitor to Microsoft, and place Corel's technology "into the open domain."

But OMB e-government administrator Mark Forman said he is unsure if the government would ever "lock in" one software solution across all agencies. "Our policy is fairly clear: to focus on the best value of what we are buying ... from a life-cycle perspective," he said.

Although OMB's e-government office is looking to standardize the way data are submitted to the government electronically, Forman said that effort is not the same as requiring computer documents to operate on an open standard.

"There is a presumption there that propriety software is not interoperable," said Robert Kramer, executive director of the Initiative for Software Choice, of which Microsoft is a member. "A lot of proprietary applications and programs operate on variety of operating systems."

He said any government policy to require software standards will only "force the market in one direction or another."

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E-gov chief 'very happy' with progress on initiatives

Maureen Sirhal — Fri, 16 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Electronic government is becoming a staple of the Bush administration's underlying agenda for transforming the federal government. But the work involves more than simply posting documents online. To Mark Forman, the first director of the new E-Government Office at the Office of Management and Budget, it is about fundamentally changing the way government functions and leveraging technology to enhance those operations. Forman recently talked with Maureen Sirhal of National Journal's Technology Daily. Here are excerpts of that interview:

Q: Some people have criticized the various aspects of the 24 e-government initiatives, specifically Project Safecom-which aims to make wireless public-safety systems able to communicate with each other-and the e-authentication initiative, suggesting that they are lagging. What do you say in response?

A: Well, first of all, I'm very happy with the progress of not just the 24 e-government initiatives but the whole expanding e-government President's Management Agenda initiative. I look at some of these metrics-for example, the Nielson Net ratings that's now tracking the federal government usage. In [January] over 49 percent of American businesses were online with us. ...That's a real milestone for us. I look at how we restructured Firstgov.gov to be more citizen-friendly and [require just] three clicks to service. ... Last year we had 37 million users, and that's an awful lot of citizens. ...

Safecom, I'm very comfortable now with this, the way it is being integrated into the Department of Homeland Security. ... The big change for us continues to be the need for voice and data as opposed to just a voice-radio system. ... So, the next step ... is [to determine] what are the requirements for voice and data in those interactive public-safety wireless devices.

Q: How much money has been allocated by the federal government for cybersecurity in fiscal 2003?

A: In 2003, $4.2 billion. That's for our internal cybersecurity. There's more money than that for external. ... And that's a huge jump. I believe it was $2.5 [billion] in [fiscal 2002].

Q: How do you work with the Bush administration's cybersecurity adviser, Howard Schmidt? How will that role be filled when he leaves?

A: I can't talk too much about how it will be filled when he leaves or how the effect will be, but I can tell you how we've been operating, and a lot of this will obviously be made public as details are fleshed out.

The director of OMB is responsible for federal agency IT security. ... NIST, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, defines the technology standards. OMB issues the guidance and we do the follow up. ... Basically, we had to say what percentage of the systems are secured now that need to be properly secured. We're around 60 [percent], and we need to be 80 [percent] by the end of this year. ... We've made terrific progress, but we're not done.

The second prong is to be able to respond to vulnerability and threats within 24 hours. We need an instant-response capability. One of the things that was set up ... was the [Cyber Warning Information Network]. ... As it turns out, most of the cyberthreats attack the WhiteHouse.gov Web site. ... [P]eople use that as a virtual attack on the president. And so I get early alerts, we then alert the [federal chief information officer], and we've got the cycle time [from] the CIO council [to the Federal Computer Incident Response Center] down to 90 minutes or less. ... We've been able to make it work in as fast as 24 hours.

Q: Do you need more of a focal point within OMB on cybersecurity, the way you would on privacy?

A: We have three times the amount of people working on cybersecurity than we do on privacy. Both are major initiatives. We have a management philosophy difference in the center. My view on this is that cybersecurity has to be integrated with an architectural one. The way you address [cyber] vulnerabilities is with systems architecture and systems operators who can manage the architecture. ... We have to get the cybersecurity folks with the people who are managing the infrastructure; otherwise, you get ... people in the cybersecurity arena crying that the sky is falling because they are not in charge. And that doesn't help us.

Q: What has OMB done on "open source" software?

A: Federal agencies have invested a lot in the open-source capabilities ... [especially] at the mid-tier [computer]-server level. The issue for us is cost. A lot of people say you have to use open source because it's free, but the operations and support cost is not free for open source. ... I don't see us saying we're not going to use open source, and I don't see us saying we must use open source. Our policy is to use it where it is appropriate, and we are seeing that play out with a fairly growing demand ... in servers.

Q: How confident are you that companies without a big presence in Washington are going to have a chance to get at the e-government information technology pie?

A: I want to encourage them to come and engage in the competition. We have to get more value for the $58 billion that we are spending, and we are going to have to get a lot more people given the dramatic increase over the last couple years in IT spending. If we don't put in more people, we end up paying more per hour, which I don't think is a good deal for the taxpayers. So we're looking for ways to pull people in, but by the same token, the vendors have to understand that the government doesn't do a good job being the integrator. We need to be a solutions buyer.

Q: Does that mean companies need to go out and get the subcontractors together and come to you and say this is what we've got?

A: It depends. It's hard to talk in generalities, but what it means is that when new companies come in the marketplace, they should be looking at the IT data that we put up with the budget. What are the agencies buying? What are some of the performance measures they are looking? Vendors should come in understanding that we're a fairly intelligent customer but that in some ways it is difficult for us to deal with new ideas unless somebody can relay how the new idea affects our needs.

Q: Where is the clearinghouse for new innovative e-government technology?

A: The marketplace. I don't believe the government can create a clearinghouse per se. Everybody has to do market research. ... [W]e're becoming smarter about how we do market research. But the bottom line is we have to do a better job at identifying our requirements. That's why I maintain an open-door policy. Virtually all the [agency] CIOs maintain an open-door policy for ideas. But the other thing that we're doing is making out requirements that are known.

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'Cultural mindset' of employees called barrier to e-gov progress

Maureen Sirhal — Wed, 14 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Yet the leaders of several Bush administration projects designed to ease citizen access to government services told a group of industry and government attendees at the Industry Advisory Council's quarterly e-government meeting that governing structures are in place to help move those projects forward.

In 2001, the administration unveiled 24 projects designed to increase online access to government, design services around the needs of Americans and seize new technologies to make agencies function more efficiently.

One project called for a central Internet site for information on and applications to receive some 600 federal grant programs. So far, the project is slated to meet the first of two major goals by posting comprehensive information on nearly all grants on the new Grants.gov Web site.

Charles Havekost, program manager of the Grants.gov project at the Health and Human Services Department, said a key challenge has been getting workers involved in the various grant programs to begin thinking about how their programs are the same and how those similarities can be leveraged to ease the ability of citizens to apply for federal funding.

"Each agency has spent a lot of time focusing on how the programs are different from programs at other agencies," he said. "We've had to come in and turn that on its head and say, Let's think about what's the same.' That's probably been the most difficult discussion."

Oscar Morales, who is overseeing the creation of a consolidated online system for federal rulemaking at the Environmental Protection Agency, agreed. "Folks tend to think in terms of their own agency, " he said. "That's a big cultural thing to overcome."

Part of the problem, said Sara Hebert, the e-government manager at the Transportation Security Administration, is that funding often drives that mentality because federal programs receive money when they are deemed unique.

But panelists noted that the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is leading the overall e-government drive, is seeking to remedy that problem by allocating funds to agencies that can work together to consolidate similar programs and jointly leverage their resources.

Despite cultural barriers within the bureaucracy, e-government managers said they are moving forward, establishing new mechanisms to govern their projects and to ensure that the creation of consolidated services will survive long term.

Grants.gov, for example, has an executive board composed of high-level executives from the federal agencies participating in the project. Other programs, including an initiative to consolidate the way the government manages assets, are organized centrally.

Havekost noted that funding is still an issue for Grants.gov. The executive board has approved a funding mechanism, he said, but several participating agencies have yet to contribute their shares.

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Roadmap for Homeland Security Department takes shape

Maureen Sirhal — Thu, 08 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Steven Cooper told the House Government Reform Committee that his department is making progress in the Herculean task of integrating the operations of the 22 federal agencies that were transferred under Homeland Security's umbrella. The department's directorates are tasked with everything from border and immigration control and intelligence sharing to coordinating nationwide disaster response.

Since the department was created, Cooper explained, his tech team has established basic computing and communications services, including the creation of desktop computer access among the department's component agencies, a Web site and coordinated e-mail system.

"Once we accomplished that, our focus reshifted to our enterprise architecture," Cooper said. That initiative involves mapping the business strategy and processes for the agency and the information technology systems that will support them.

He told lawmakers that the architecture development plans will be disclosed in phases beginning in June, with the release of the current architecture. By August, the department aims to release a "to be" architecture that will detail business strategies and "mission elements" of the department and its directorates.

The roadmap designed to get the department to that point will be released by September, Cooper said. "We've already begun to identify some opportunities" to consolidate redundant business and technology systems. "We certainly don't need the 20-plus human-resource applications that exist" within component agencies.

The department then will seek input from state, local and private-sector groups to continue to refine that roadmap, he said.

While Homeland Security and other administration officials continue to map the enterprise functions and IT systems, they also are working to remedy immediate problems, including the information-sharing gaps often partly blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The department is leveraging existing systems to increase the capabilities for sharing information with state and local officials, he said. The department, for example, is working with the Emergency Response Network of Dallas to provide security information to "first responders."

But some lawmakers questioned whether Homeland Security is successfully tackling cultural barriers to sharing information among federal agencies, such as the FBI.

The department is working with stakeholders in the intelligence community to agree on a vision for how information should be shared, Cooper said. "There are documents that are being circulated for signature that do contain some very specific examples and requirements around the sharing of information," he said.

"To find out now that two years later this isn't done is almost staggering," Massachusetts Democrat John Tierney said.

Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rossetti, who oversaw an integration effort similar to Homeland Security's, agreed that it is appropriate to reengineer business processes before trying to integrate tech systems. "That's what controls the money, incentives and people and the way that they work," he said.

He urged lawmakers to maintain realistic expectations for progress at the department.

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Administration rethinks system for allocating security funds

Maureen Sirhal — Thu, 01 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Acknowledging the problems that state and local police, fire and other emergency-response organizations face in obtaining federal grants, Ridge told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that his department has been experimenting with different mechanisms to calculate how much money states and communities should receive.

"Our current formula fails to recognize that linear population increases do not equate into linear threat increases," Ridge said of the grant-distribution process.

Instead, the department is considering how to weight those factors as well as a region's degree of vulnerability. Threat assessments are based on intelligence that considers catastrophic damage that could result from an attack. Vulnerabilities could include the number of critical infrastructures housed within state and national landmarks, for example.

"At the end of the day ... we shouldn't distribute a security dollar unless it is consistent with ... an overarching plan brought into us by the states," Ridge said. He also called on lawmakers to convey the message that states must craft a strategy to coordinate with their local communities before receiving federal funds.

Ridge also defended the decision of his department's Office of Domestic Preparedness to provide grants to seven major cities that satisfied threat, vulnerability and population criteria. Those factors were weighted and based on intelligence from the CIA, FBI and other agencies, he said.

Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins of Maine cited complaints by police, fire and other public-safety groups in her state that several federal agencies tasked with supplying first responders with grants are asking for the same homeland security plans. "Shouldn't there be a way to consolidate some of those plans?" she asked.

Ridge said the department is working to eliminate duplicative requests for security plans but stressed that the government needs those strategies to hold states and localities accountable for how they spend federal money.

Although several senators chided Ridge for not making more funds available to states to hire personnel, some panel members argued that there is a limit to federal security grants. "I do not believe that all homeland security expenses and costs should be underwritten by the federal taxpayer," said Alaskan Ted Stevens, chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Both Stevens and fellow Republican George Voinovich of Ohio urged Ridge and the Bush administration to clearly define the federal responsibility for funding homeland security in the states. "We have to reduce the expectation of unlimited funding," Stevens said.

Ridge also told the panel that the department is trying to make progress in building an Internet portal for grant applications and that he supports moving the Office of Domestic Preparedness into the department's State and Local Coordination Office.

Meanwhile, Collins said she would introduce a measure to streamline the structure for distributing homeland security grants. The measure would consolidate multiple grant application requirements, allow states to use the funds flexibly to meet needs and coordinate security grants with other state and local funding programs.

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Web portal expands technology available to agencies

Maureen Sirhal — Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0400

The operator of the federal government's Internet portal announced on Wednesday that it is bolstering efforts to leverage its technology tools across government by allowing agencies to use the products to manage their own Web sites.

As part of the effort, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it has awarded a contract to Reston, Va.-based Vignette to purchase content-management software for the FirstGov.gov portal, which links to nearly every federal entity.

GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Communications, which manages FirstGov, found that other agencies could use some of the capabilities that it purchased for FirstGov, said Associate Director M.J. Jameson.

In keeping with the "buy once, use many" motto advocated by Bush administration budget officials, GSA in 2001 began offering its search-engine software to other federal agencies so they could utilize the technology. "We've got about 500 government entities using our search engine, and they don't pay anything for that," she said.

Over the past two years, GSA has sought to capitalize on the success of that program by offering across the federal government other Web services that it has licensed. Last year, for example, Jameson's group started letting other agencies host their Web sites through FirstGov. And GSA's newest contract for online content tools will enable government agency Webmasters to post information on their sites more quickly and easily, she said.

That initiative "can allow [agencies] to have added functionality and make their products better" without duplicating the purchase of IT Web tools, Jameson said. "There are a lot of other benefits, such as [increased] security," she said.

Some agencies may pay incremental costs for some GSA Web services, Jameson said, but those costs will be far less than if the agencies licensed the products on their own.

Although the effort began in 2001, she said it has been evolving, and now GSA officials are attempting to formalize a division within the Office of Citizen Services to serve as a clearinghouse for the shared Web-services program.

"We're looking at how to put that together right now and what that will look like," she added.

Jameson cautioned, however, that not all agencies may need the GSA services. "When there's a fit and it makes sense, that's when you want to do it."

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Agency sees gains from telework initiative

Maureen Sirhal — Tue, 15 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0400

Advances in a program allowing attorneys employed at the Patent and Trademark Office to work from home are enabling the PTO to relinquish about three floors, or 47,000 square feet, of office space, officials said in an interview last week.

The PTO's telework program, launched in 1997, allows lawyers to work from home via computers and Internet connections. The agency expanded the program in 2001 with the introduction of "hoteling." Attorneys that need to work in the PTO's Arlington, Va., offices, reserve workspace in advance, which allows roughly five workers to share one office, Trademark Commissioner Anne Chasser said.

The PTO expects to save roughly $1.5 million in office rental costs as a result, she said.

When attorneys work from home, they typically have access to high-speed Internet connections and support staff for computers and other technology equipment.

"We provide them equipment and computers that are basically identical to what they would have in the office" so that they are "logging on at home to the same environment. That is what is so unique about our programs," said Deborah Cohn, group director for the trademark law offices.

The federal government has expanded its telework programs since a 2001 law required agencies to allow eligible workers to telecommute. By the end of 2003, more than 75 percent of eligible employees will be allowed to telework.

A survey released by the Office of Personnel Management in January showed that the number of government teleworkers increased 21 percent from 2001 to 2002, although a survey in 2002 showed that only about 14 percent of federal workers telecommute.

Bonnie Storm, manager of the work-life group at OPM, said that based on anecdotal evidence, other agencies are realizing similar real-estate savings.

Tim Kane, president of the International Telework Association and Council, said several economic factors are driving the move toward telework. Companies and government agencies can reduce expenses by allowing employees to work from home, he said. Additionally, workers view telework programs as a major benefit, and that helps firms retain employees.

"People want this ... because they like to have a little more control over their lives," he said.

Some critics have said that telework programs can lead to lower productivity because workers have less supervision. However, Cohn said the program is extremely popular and has resulted in increased productivity from the participating attorneys. The agency maintains a waiting list for eligible workers who are interested in participating in the telework programs.

The program also improves the ability of the PTO to retain qualified workers, Cohn said. "We find the people working at home who are able to balance work and family issues," she said, adding that other agencies have requested a lot of information on the success of the initiative.

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Senate chair poised to offer first responder bill

Maureen Sirhal — Wed, 09 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0400

The chairman of a key Senate committee said on Wednesday that she will unveil a measure to help "first responders" in the states more easily obtain federal aid for homeland security.

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she intends to introduce a bill that would authorize Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to issue waivers for states and localities that want federal funds for needs other than those stipulated in grant rules. Collins' announcement poses a solution to problems facing states and localities as they try to better prepare for terrorist attacks and other emergencies.

The current structure of most security grant programs establishes formulas for dividing grants for specific purposes, such as buying equipment or conducting personnel training exercises. But representatives of fire and police departments told Collins' committee in a hearing on Wednesday that those rules are cumbersome and prevent emergency-response organizations from directing federal money to needy areas.

The "multi-layer, multi-department" system to allocate grants has led to "total confusion and in most cases a lack of action" for local security efforts, said Fire Chief Edward Plaugher of Virginia's Arlington County.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, states and localities have had to boost security, in some cases under federal requirements, but have not received the resources they said are necessary to cover those costs. At the same time, most states face budget shortfalls.

Grants for Delaware's police "cannot be used to hire new police ... [or] pay overtime expenses that we incur each time [Homeland Security] Secretary [Tom] Ridge changes" the nation's security-alert level, said Jeffrey Horvath, police chief for Dover, Del.

There are grants available to help police and fire departments upgrade their equipment, including communications devices, Horvath said. But "I have to wait for a statewide plan to be developed, and then I hope that a fair share of those funds will filter to my department."

The witnesses said little grant money is reaching localities and appealed to the senators for a more streamlined system for allocating and distributing the money. They also called for flexibility in how the funds are used so they can better meet security mandates.

Portland, Maine, for example, is required by the Transportation Security Administration to keep 12 police officers on guard at the Portland International Jetport 24 hours a day, said Police Chief Michael Chitwood. But the government does not reimburse the costs to Portland for taking those officers from their regular beats.

"We may have to cut certain programs and services ... if the city of Dover is unable to find other revenue sources," Horvath added of his city's circumstances.

Horvath and Chitwood said neither of their departments has received any federal grants since Sept. 11, 2001.

Collins indicated that her measure likely would include a provision that would move the Office Of Domestic Preparedness from Homeland Security's border directorate into Ridge's office. With that move, "I hope to begin the process of establishing a canalized location to help our first responders," Collins said.

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Homeland department to allot $100 million for emergency preparedness

Maureen Sirhal — Tue, 08 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0400

The Homeland Security Department announced on Tuesday that it will allocate $100 million this year for emergency preparedness in major U.S. cities.

The funding will be distributed under the urban-area security initiative and is aimed at improving the ability of local governments to prepare for and respond to potential threats, including terrorist activities. Already the department has made available to local governments $566 million to purchase emergency equipment, pay for improved training and conduct emergency exercises.

The department awarded nearly $25 million to New York City; $18 million to Washington, D.C., more than $12 million to Los Angeles, $11 million to Seattle, more than $10 million each to Chicago and San Francisco, and more than $8 million to Houston.

Additionally, the administration has asked that Congress provide $2 billion more in fiscal 2003 to help states and localities pay for terrorism preparations.

Meanwhile, a Bush administration official told a Senate panel on Tuesday that Homeland Security's emergency preparedness and response directorate is undergoing a restructuring designed to bolster cooperation among state and local emergency response agencies.

In a prepared statement before the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Michael Brown, undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response, said he has "ordered an internal reorganization" of the directorate, which is charged with mitigating risk and responding to incidents caused by terrorism or natural disasters.

The directorate, he said, "will be divided into four disciplines-preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. This reorganization reflects the traditional areas of emergency management" and "resembles the organizational flow used by many states."

Brown also said the directorate is requesting funds in fiscal 2004 for several initiatives, including implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which will work to coordinate and integrate emergency response capabilities at all levels of government.

The agency also is seeking $200 million to update the flood-mapping system. "More than two-thirds of the maps are more than 10 years old," he said, adding that most of them "have outdated streets that make it difficult to precisely determine if a property is located in a floodplain."

The information, which is used millions of times a year by communities, lenders, insurance agents and others, also is incompatible with Geographic Information System technology, he said.

The $200 million budget request, according to Brown, would help create a system that would allow states and localities to better manage flood data and share it with Homeland Security.

"Through the flood-map modernization program, we will enable easy access and exchange of flood-hazard data through the Internet," he said. "This system will provide tools allowing the effective use of information for making decisions that reduce vulnerability to flood risk."

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Lawmaker to probe results of agencies' R&D spending, e-gov efforts

Maureen Sirhal — Mon, 07 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0400

"I want us to find some better way of getting our arms around the federal research agenda," said Florida Republican Adam Putnam, chairman of the House Government Reform Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Subcommittee.

"The federal government spends a lot on R&D, whether it's [for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], development of biological weapons" or other initiatives, Putnam said in an interview. "I am not sure that any one person ... really has a grasp on this federal research agenda. Where are we getting bang for our buck? ... I'd like us to take a look at that."

Putnam wants to review research efforts at federal departments, including projects that are outsourced to private institutions and universities, to determine how well those programs are managed. The Energy Department, for example, attracted scrutiny after reports of lax security and financial abuses at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which is managed by the University of California system.

Putnam's district may well boast more orange orchards than high-tech concerns, but his interest in information technology has put him squarely in the path of several controversial issues, such as data mining, that are among the federal government's counter-terrorism and homeland security initiatives.

The subcommittee will hold a hearing in early May to address the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness program, which seeks to develop data-mining tools to search both public and private databanks for information that could halt potential terrorists.

"I think there are some legitimate issues for us to address, but I think the bulk of the data mining that's going on today, and has been going on in the public and private sectors, is a consolidation of existing databases, existing information, exiting public records," Putnam said. "As we expand our knowledge of what [the Pentagon] was up to ... we have an opportunity, and perhaps an obligation, to begin laying out some markers for what's appropriate."

Putnam's subcommittee also plans to evaluate the Bush administration's 24 e-government initiatives, which seek to modernize the way government functions and make it more citizen friendly by employing the Internet and other technologies. In particular, the subcommittee in July plans to address issues surrounding digital archives and the development of standards to store electronic documents, Putnam said.

But "one of the recurring themes" that surrounds e-government and R&D is the management of workers," he said. "We have to invest in attracting bright capable, young professionals in IT and information management and systems to the federal government, and persuade them that it's a good place to spend their time."

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Homeland Security official defends student tracking system

Maureen Sirhal — Wed, 02 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0500

A top Homeland Department Security official on Wednesday defended the government's implementation of a system to track the whereabouts of foreign students studying at U.S colleges and universities.

Despite glitches in the system, the Student and Exchange Visitor and Information System (SEVIS) is fully deployed and working well, Johnny Williams told the House Judiciary Immigration, Border Security and Claims Subcommittee. Williams is the interim director of immigration enforcement at Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which replaced part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

SEVIS was originally conceived from an earlier program to track foreign students that was tested but never fully deployed. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress passed laws mandating that immigration officials develop a way for colleges and universities to track their visiting students because several of the terrorists had expired student visas. Lawmakers required that the system be functional by Jan. 1.

According to prepared statements, Williams told the House panel that SEVIS is performing "very effectively." So far, 4,300 schools have been certified to participate in the Internet-based data system. And by Aug.1, Williams said the system should contain complete information on all foreign students studying in the United States.

But Glenn Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, said SEVIS still lacks key components for it to be considered fully deployed. According to a report issued last week, SEVIS still suffers from technical problems that make it inaccessible to some institutions, Fine said, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is falling behind in its certification of participating schools.

He added that immigration officials have not allocated sufficient resources to SEVIS so that it can help reduce fraudulent immigration activities.

The college community charged that SEVIS information is frequently inaccurate and inaccessible. David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, told the panel that many schools find, for example, that students' immigration forms print at other schools.

"SEVIS is a new system developed and deployed under an aggressive schedule," Williams said. "Any new system will have bugs and anomalies that must be addressed." The agency plans to hire additional support to address technical problems, he added.

Thomas Fischer, a former INS official, described the SEVIS program as a "dumbed down" version of the pilot system that omits certain capabilities necessary for tracking and enforcing student visa policies. SEVIS lacks several features that would enable the system to coordinate the tracking of student financial data, for example.

Moreover, SEVIS relies on contractors to investigate educational institutions that apply to participate in the program. That process can take up to three months, he noted. And Fischer urged Congress to stiffen penalties for institutions that do not comply with SEVIS policies.

Ward called for immediate changes in the system to ensure timely updates and accessibility.

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Security department may oversee Internet infrastructure

Maureen Sirhal — Tue, 01 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0500

The Bush administration's acting cybersecurity adviser Howard Schmidt said in an interview that homeland security and government agencies officials are working to formalize a security apparatus for the global Internet root servers, a series of computer systems that underpin the Internet's address system.

After an attack on those servers and the Internet domain-name system last October, Schmidt, several agencies officials, computer-security experts and root-server operators discussed in January how they could better respond to such incidents.

Their talks identified the need to develop a framework for determining when individuals and companies that operate the Internet's mission-critical domain system should report an attack or disturbance to government officials.

"We're doing two things in that vein: One is we're looking at what are things we really care about or that the government should know about" concerning Internet attacks, he said.

"We're looking at institutionalizing the standard protocols for communication back and forth" between the root-server community and the U.S. government, Schmidt said in comments to Technology Daily following his speech to the SecurE-Biz conference in Arlington, Va.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was created in 1998 to provide oversight and coordination for the Internet's domain-name system, which includes issues like root-server security. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) delegated that authority to the ICANN under an agreement that has been extended annually.

"Obviously, ICANN and NTIA ...have a play in this. But when we look at it as it relates to homeland security's new information-protection piece, [the Homeland Security Department] has a play in it as well," Schmidt said.

"What we want to do is look at the role ICANN has to play and how it relates to the day to day operations of what we are doing. They are working on an annual basis as opposed to a ... real-time basis," he said.

When asked whether the discussion could lead to the Homeland Security Department executing a direct role in root-server security through the government's relationship with ICANN, Schmidt said "the roles and responsibilities are going to be determined as we pull this group together."

There are plans for the group to meet again, Schmidt said. He added that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is very concerned about cybersecurity and pays close attention to it.

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Defense finance system upgrade failing, investigators say

Maureen Sirhal — Mon, 31 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0500

The General Accounting Office told a panel of lawmakers that Defense does not have the oversight tools and architecture in place to properly manage and justify its multibillion-dollar investment in information technology products for its accounting systems.

GAO reviewed four Defense Finance and Accounting Service projects and found that to date, most of the projects are exceeding cost estimates and their deadlines. Officials revealed those conclusions in testimony before a joint hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittees focused on national security and technology policy.

Defense is slated to spend about $18 billion on more than 1,700 existing systems to manage its finances, and most of those projects remain "at risk" for waste, fraud and abuse, according to GAO. The office estimated that for 2003, the department will spend about $50 million a day to operate the financial IT systems.

"One could speculate that ... if [Defense] were a private-sector corporation, its IT systems would be driving it to [file for bankruptcy]," said Randolph Hite, GAO's director of IT architecture and systems issues.

Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, chairman of the National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations Subcommittee, asked what precluded Defense from exercising oversight of financial IT systems. "Nothing is preventing meaningful oversight," Hite said. "That's a conscious decision whether you want to exercise it or not."

But he added that Defense suffers from a lack of "sustained" leadership to manage such issues. The average tenure of a political appointee who is tasked with managing the IT and financial issues is about 1.7 years, he said. Hite suggested that Defense look to hire a chief management officer for a term of roughly five years to provide continuity in the department.

Shays and other lawmakers seemed to embrace that notion but added that the Bush administration has expressed concern with the concept.

GAO acknowledged that Defense is making progress on the IT front by implementing key recommendations that it adopt a department-wide IT infrastructure and fund projects for its accounting systems that fit that architecture.

Joann Boutelle, Defense's deputy chief financial officer, and other Defense officials said the department is implementing substantial reforms in financial management, with the goal of operating on one "enterprise-wide system." The department also is relying on measurements outlined in the President's Management Agenda to improve its efficiency and project oversight, officials said.

But Shays and other lawmakers questioned why there has not been more aggressive oversight of financial modernization, even after waste within that effort became apparent.

"There is a lot more oversight going on now than there was in the past," Boutelle said, and adding that the comptroller's office now reviews financial modernization projects quarterly.

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Progress on e-gov projects varies widely

Maureen Sirhal — Thu, 13 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0500

While many of the 24 e-government initiatives are showing tangible results, not all of them have made the same progress, Joel Willemssen, managing director of information technology at the General Accounting Office, said in a hearing before the House Government Reform Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Subcommittee.

According to GAO's study, Willemssen said, about half of the agencies involved in the e-government initiatives have altered their cost estimates for the projects by more than 30 percent. Additionally, several of the agencies neglected to consider the needs of prospective e-government users and failed to adequately coordinate projects with their federal partners.

GAO also found "indications that important aspects of some of the initiatives had not been addressed and that for many of them, funding strategies and milestones were in a state of flux," he said. The fluctuations demonstrate a need for oversight, he added.

Mark Forman, associate director for information technology and e-government at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), acknowledged that many of the e-government projects face challenges. But he said they "are headed in the right direction."

Forman told the House panel that the administration has made "significant" progress. He noted, for example, that 17 agencies scored high marks in the first quarter of 2003 for their progress in reaching e-government goals outlined in President Bush's Management Agenda.

Additionally, dozens of Web sites have been launched to make it easier for citizens to find and obtain government services. New Web portals are helping businesses learn about and comply with regulations, and agencies are working to ease data-reporting requirements for businesses and state and local governments. And several cross-agency initiatives are helping to alleviate redundant government services and IT procurement.

OMB also began taking steps to ensure that faltering IT initiatives will not be funded unless they begin meeting goals and agencies can justify the need for the projects.

Forman said federal entities must improve efforts to modernize their business practices and not just automate them with new technologies. He also called on lawmakers to fully fund the president's fiscal 2004 budget request of $45 million for interagency e-government plans.

Patricia McGinnis, president and CEO of the Council for Excellence in Government, argued that the e-government agenda is in line with what citizens say they want. "What I see now is a lot of progress," she said. "[T]his cluster of initiatives centered around individuals ... businesses ... and state and local governments makes a lot of sense."

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Report to recognize agencies' progress toward IT security

Maureen Sirhal — Wed, 12 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0500

The Bush administration is readying a report that will recognize several government agencies for making tangible progress in their efforts to meet security goals for information technology, according to administration officials.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is preparing to send Congress an annual report highlighting the status of those IT initiatives, OMB analysts told members of a National Institute of Standards and Technology advisory board on Wednesday. The report will be the last IT security review by OMB before it updates its guidelines and agency reporting requirements under new IT rules created under a recent e-government law.

Now in its third year of conducting security reviews for federal agencies, OMB is witnessing improvement in the arena, said Kamela White, a policy analyst at OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). "There is clearly government-wide progress happening," she told the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board.

The number of agencies that are crafting detailed security plans and adopting contingency plans, for example, continues to climb, she said.

"But we're also seeing recurring problems," she noted. Those ongoing concerns will be highlighted in the report.

OIRA privacy analyst Eva Kleederman also updated the panel on several of her agency's initiatives to bolster privacy protection.

OMB has begun meeting with the component agencies of the Homeland Security Department to help them comply with privacy rules. Kleederman said OMB officials met in early January with representatives of those agencies to help "them focus on what they need to do" as they begin establishing "routine uses" for data that they normally would not share outside the agencies.

Additionally, she said, "we are working on developing some intergovernmental activities, discussion groups ... to advance privacy-related discussions and initiatives." But she noted that the initiative is just beginning.

OMB also is developing guidance for making privacy policies on federal Web sites "machine readable," as required by federal e-government law. Under such a directive, agencies would need to create a mechanism to allow Web users to choose whether to continue navigating the Web site after viewing the site's privacy policies.

Kleederman sought input from the advisory board on how OMB's guidelines could give citizens the chance to limit how the government treats their personal information.

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